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The Best Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Best Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies – One of my absolute favorite recipes for chocolate chip cookies thanks to a special ingredient!! Just one bite and I think you’ll agree!!

Battle of the Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is a repost of this 2014 recipe and while I’ve made many other chocolate chip cookies since then, these are some of my absolute favorites.

These really are my new favorite chewy chocolate chip cookies. Now, that’s a big statement because I haven’t cheated on this recipe in two and a half years! I’ve used it for Twix Bar Cookies, Snickers Cookies, M&Ms Cookies, Smores Cookies, and many others when I want a hearty, but buttery dough base. Any cookie I’m going to stuff with add-ins or candy, that’s not a peanut butter cookie, I use that base.

But all good things eventually get knocked off their pedestal and something better, shinier, and newer comes along: entercookies made with pudding mix.

This chocolate chip cookie recipe is nearly a carbon copy of my old standby. The significant change is:

omitting 2 teaspoons of cornstarch and replacing with one packet instant vanilla pudding mix. (If you don’t like pudding mix or can’t find it in your area I recommend you use my old standby recipe because there’s really no substitutions here.)

Big, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

The cookies are slightly larger than you may be used to baking. There are about 4 tablespoons of dough (1/4 cup) per cookie, and the batch makes just 14 large-ish cookies.The cookies are still so much smaller than cookies I see for sale at bakeries and coffee shops, and 8 comfortably fit on a baking tray.

I’d rather bake fewer bigger cookies because frankly, it’s less work. But also because the size and the related surface area does matter in terms of the final taste and texture.

Smaller cookies tend to dry out faster and relatively speaking, and there’s more chewy edge than soft center.

Conversely, bigger cookies have softer, tender, juicy bites loaded with chocolate due to a greater interior surface area. Christina Tosi speaks very eloquently about this in her book.

Be Cool to Your Dough

As with all my cookies, you mustchill the dough before baking. It’s absolutely crucial for thick, puffy, full cookies. If you bake with warm, limp dough, your chocolate chip cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter. Why bother. Plan ahead and chill your dough.

I baked my chocolate chip cookies for 11 minutes, but if you choose to make smaller cookies, you’ll need to bake for less time. How much less? I don’t know. The secret to these chewy chocolate chip cookies is keeping them a touch underbaked. I think that’s the secret to most good cookies.

**Tips For The Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies**

Make sure the butter is truly soft. If it’s not, cheat and zap it in the micro for 5 to 10 seconds. It’s best to plan ahead and set your butter out 2 to 4 hours ahead of time, but it’s better to cheat with the micro than try to cream cold butter. Your dough will seem overly dry and crumbly after adding the dry ingredients if your butter wasn’t sufficiently softened. I used Trader Joe’s unsalted butter.

Use a high-quality flour like King Arthur. It has just a bit more protein (gluten) than other brands so your baked goods have more structure and will rise higher.

Chill the dough so the cookies bake up thick and don’t spread as much.

Underbake so the cookies are (almost) as good on the third day as they are right out of the oven.

Bake on a Silpat because it provides traction so the cookies don’t slip-and-slide around a slippery greased baking sheet.

Use a cookie scoop. I first portion out the dough with the scoop so all the mounds are the same size, and then I smooth them out with my hands so they’re perfectly smooth.

Strategically re-positioning the chocolate chips while smoothing the mounds.

Obsessive? Yes, but I am asked all the time what my tricks and secrets are, and now you know.

The Verdict Is In: Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

These homemade chocolate chip cookies are thick enough to sink your teeth into, with slight chewiness at the base and edges. It’s just enough to balance the very pillowy soft centers and give me the mouthfeel I want in a perfectly baked, chewy chocolate chip cookie.

The dough is buttery and moist with hints of vanilla, and it’s the perfect canvas for the melted chocolate chips.

So it’s ‘the best’ according to me and my family, and of course, this can change. Food bloggers, we change our minds if you haven’t noticed. But for now, these chewy chocolate chip cookies are the top dog.

I can’t wait for you to try them and let me know if you agree.

Here’s a video showing you exactly how I make the cookies.

The Best Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield:14 med/large cookies

Total Time:3+ hours, for dough chilling

Prep Time:15 minutes

Cook Time:about 11 minutes

This is my new favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies. They’re soft, moist, buttery, and thick enough to sink your teeth into. There’s a hint of chewiness at the base and edges, and it’s just enough to balance the soft pillowy centers and give me what I want for my idea of the perfect chocolate chip cookie. The secret to these cookies is instant vanilla pudding mix and there’s no substitutions. The cookies are larger than some and the batch makes 14 cookies. About 11 minutes works perfectly for this size cookie, and if you alter the size of the cookie, you’ll need to alter the baking time. The dough must be chilled before baking so the cookies don’t spread and bake thin and flat.

Directions:

To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric mixer) combine the butter, sugars, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until creamed and well combined, about 4 minutes.

Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, pudding mix, baking soda, optional salt, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.

Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the chocolate chips, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.

Using a large cookie scoop, 1/4-cup measure, or your hands, form approximately 14 equal-sized mounds of dough, roll into balls, and flatten slightly. Tip – Strategically place a few chocolate chips right on top of each mound of dough by taking chips from the underside and adding them on top.

Place mounds on a large plate or tray, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 5 days. Do not bake with unchilled dough because cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading.

Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place dough mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet) and bake for about 11 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center; don’t overbake. Cookies firm up as they cool. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don’t use a rack.

Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.

Recipe from Averie Cooks. All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or simply link back to this post for the recipe. Thank you.

507 comments on “The Best Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies”

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By far the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever tried, and I’ve tried a BUNCH. People rave over these for days and days. Is there a particular way that you would recommend storing the baked cookies in the freezer? Someone has asked me to make them some to enjoy over a 2 week period, and I know they’ll be dry after 5 or so days, so I was thinking maybe a freezer bag? Just curious what your thoughts are.

Thanks for the five star review and glad this is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe you’ve ever tried! I would say honestly it’s best to freeze the balls of dough and bake those off a couple at a time than it is to freeze already baked cookies. But if you still want to go that route, yes freezer bag is what I would do as well.

Hi Averie. I baked these cookies last night and I don’t think they came out right. The cookies got hard after cooling. They weren’t really chewy and kind of dry. The chocolate chips didnt really seem to melt in the cookies either. I accidentally bought milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet. Do you think that affected them? Also I left the dough in the fridge overnight and it was really hard, should I have let it thaw out a little before baking? I really want them to come out perfect. What do you think?

Hate to beat a dead horse but dangit…this recipe is FIRE! The cookies come out moist and like clouds they are so soft. I’ve made them with walnut pieces and they aren’t as soft but the result is still a fabulous cookie!

My go to base for my “vanilla based cookie” I always can adapt this. Love love rave reviews. I have had a batch of dough in my fridge for 1.5 weeks (in Tupperware) I hate to waste!!!! I’m still going to make them and let’s just hope they’re still ok. Thanks Averie Oh and I’m getting your book !!!

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